Process for making brass.



State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements 1n the Proced a charge of copper and a certain proporcopper.

' this methbd, the brass is produced on a aware, without success. This lack of success the obstacles that have stood in the Way of barre-u sat res Parana canton LAWRENCE ADDICKS, 0F

CHROME, new JERSEY.

rnocnss ron MAKING amass.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LAWRENCE ADDICKSL a citizen of the United States, residingatl Chrome, in the countyof Middlesex and ess for Making Brass, of which the follow in is a specification.

ly invention relates to a new and im' proved process for making brass.

It relates particularly to a process for making brass much more economically than i it .is made at present'and on a much larger scale.

-ffhe method at present in vogue in manufacturing brass is as follows: In av crucible holding approximately 100 lbs. there is melt tion of brass scrap and spelter. The copper having been thus melted, the zinc is introduced, the charge being then skimmed and poured as rapidly as possible, in order to avoid loss of the zincwhich volatilizes 1 very rapidly. at the temperatu'ie of molten This method of manufacture is very expensive, since the cost oflthe cruci-' bles is high, the depreciation rapid and the breakage very considerable. Moreover, in

small scale, and the labor cost is excessive. To overcome certain of these disadvantages it has been proposed to make the brass in a reverberatory furnace, but, so far as I am is due in the first place to the very great loss of zinc, and, secondly, to the diificulty of maintaining a uniform grade in the brass produced. A uniform grade is necessary, in order to assure a uniform color in the product,

The object of my invention is to overcome using the reverberatory furnace, or a simi lar large source of heat, and to produce the brass on a large scale and at a price for labor not much exceeding the casting ofcopper ingots by the copper founder.

To carry out my invention, I melt in a rcverberatory furnace, 'or similar source of heat, 'a full charge of copper such as is put into the furnace by the copper melters. The size of these charges varies from 20 to 250 tons per tWenty-four-hours, and the method is in no way changed from ordinary copper melting. into the furnace are placed copper cathodes or copper in the shape of Specification of Letters Patent,

Patented Get. 2a, 19112.

1 Application filed January 12, 1911 Serial No. 602,154.

ingots, or in anxfo'rm desired, and the same are reduced to the molten state. I now provide an intermediate ladle, such, for instance, as the ordinary back gear crane ladle in common use in foundries, suitably lined with fire-clay. A convenient size for the intermediate ladle will be a capacity of two or three tons. I draw into the intermediate ladle a fraction of the furnace cl1ai'ge, and introduce thereinto the desired quantity of zinc, quickly incorporating it into the copper. The two or three tons of brass are then promptly drawn oif from the ladle and cast into ingots, or other desired shapes.

It is evident that the molten copper will be delivered to the ladle at no greater cost than to the molds in Which copper ingots are cast, and that, therefore, the entire cost of making the brass will be simply the cost of materials, plus whatever zinc loss is involved, plus the ladling cost, which will be little more than that of ladling the original copper ingots. I can, of course, from one furnace charge, produce a difierent brass composition in each intermediate ladle soi charge, by changing the relative proportions of the copper and'zinc put'into the ladle. My invention thus eliminates entirely a large part of the present brass founding cost. .The exact quantity that can be handled to advantage at a time will be largely determined by the loss of zinc that is encoiintered, and this quantity of copper can be regulated Within quite Wide limits, according to circumstances, but a suitable amount will be fo und to be from one to three tons. It is evident that any suitable and convenient source of heat may be used, the only condition forworking rapidly and on a large scale being that said heat source shall be capable of melting large amounts 1 of copper at one charge.

By the term brass as used herein .is meant any alloy of copper and zinc, with or ithout the addition of other metals; and thus includesfor example German silver, and highbrasses, sometimes called bronzes; Having thus fully described my process and the manner in which it is to be carried out, what I claim is V 1. The process of manufacturing brass, which consists in melting a largequantity of copper by a suitable source of heat, drmving 01f a fraction of the molten copper into a suitably lined intermediate rcccptaclemdd ye ee-wee ing to the said rece kacle the proper peri the desired percentage of zinc, and casting centage of zinc, an casting the resulting T the resulting brass to the desired shape,

brass intn the desired shape. I In witnese whereoilhave hereunto signed? 2. The process of manufacturing brass, my name in the presence of two subscribing 5 which consists in reducing to the molten 1 witnesses.

state by a suitable source of heat e re1atively large iness of copper, transferring? LAWRENCE ADDICK to an intermediate receptacle successive Witnesses: charges of molten copper approximating: C. W. DRAGON,

10 two to three tens each, adding t0 each charge l E. J. BULFIN. 

